GIVE YOUR TEACHING THE
COACHING TWIST
Duncan Foord,
Prague, April 2016
3 Coach questions
Think of a student you teach.
1. What do you know about their English language
life? Tell your partner
2. What are their goals? How are they progressing
in relation to those goals? Tell your partner
3. What is stopping them reach their goals or
slowing them down? What could they do to
overcome these obstacles?
Class A
Average lessons, students do lots of English outside
class
Class B
Great lessons, students do little English outside
class
Which students make more progress?
three things coaches do:
the Coaching MOP
1. MOTIVATE They inspire and motivate their learners, especially
when they see that they are flagging.
2. ORGANISE They help their learners to set goals and monitor
their achievements.
3. PRACTISE They help their learners to exploit their skills,
abilities and interests to achieve their goals.
Inner game theory
In every human endeavour there are two arenas of engagement: the outer
and the inner.
The outer game is played on an external arena to overcome external
obstacles to reach an external goal.
The inner game takes place within the mind of the player and is played
against such obstacles as fear, self-doubt, lapses in focus, and limiting
concepts or assumptions. The inner game is played to overcome the selfimposed obstacles that prevent an individual or team from accessing
their full potential.
Timothy Gallwey
GROW your English
If you had this conversation with students about
learning English,
…when would you do it?
…who would do it? You with each student or students
with each other?
…how long would you spend on it?
…would you do it just once, or regularly?
…how could you organise conversations like this in
your teaching situation?
English Week
Recording yourself
Time: 20 mins
Level: A2–C1
Practising:speaking fluency
You can use a computer to record your voice or make a video if you have a webcam.
Mobile phones, iPods and mp3s can also be used for recording sound and video.
Step one
Prepare to talk. You are going to talk about the place where you live. Think about what
you are going to say. You can make a few notes, but don’t write a complete script. For
example, you can talk about:
• The location
• How to get there
• The surroundings (shops, buildings, countryside, etc.)
• What you like and don’t like about it
Step two
Record yourself talking for 2 minutes.
Step three
Listen to the recording. You can record it again if you want to improve it, but don’t
worry if it isn’t perfect!
Do more on your own
Make another recording about a different topic: a friend you met recently, something
that makes you angry, a special object… You choose!
Do more with other people
Your English teacher or a friend with good English could watch/listen to your recording
and give you some advice on how to improve.
Listening to a song
Time: 20 mins
Level: A2–C1
Practising: listening to a song and reading the lyrics
Songs make language memorable. Listening to a song and studying the lyrics
(=words) is one of the most popular listening activities for people learning English!
Step one
Choose a song you want to understand from your own collection or online.
Step two
Find the lyrics of the song (search for example ‘dancing queen lyrics’). Listen to the
song and read the lyrics two or three times. Look up words you don’t know in the
dictionary. You may find a translation of the lyrics into your language which you can
also use.
Step three
Sing along to the song!
Do more on your own
• Make a note of 3 words or phrases you think are useful for you to learn.
• Post a short comment about the song on YouTube. Respond to something someone
else has posted or simply say why you like the song or the band.
• Find a song with a similar theme and compare the lyrics.
Do more with others
Tell your friend about the song. What do you think it’s about? Why do you like it?
Write a review
Time: 20 mins
Level: B1–C2
Practising: writing reviews
A few years ago, it was only professional critics who reviewed restaurants, movies,
books, new cars, etc. Nowadays, everyone can give their opinions about almost
anything on the internet. You can too!
Step one
Think of a product you’ve bought, a book you’ve read, a movie you’ve seen, a meal
you’ve eaten in a restaurant or some music you’ve listened to recently.
Step two
Find a website where you can review these things. If you bought the product online, go
back to the site you bought it from and look for ‘Write a customer review’ or similar. If
you want to review a book, movie, etc., Google ‘book/movie/restaurant review sites’
Step three
Write your review! Answer these questions to help you.
What type of (movie, restaurant…) is it? What was good about it? What wasn’t so good about it?
Who would you recommend it to and why?
Do more on your own
• Read more reviews of the same thing you wrote about. Do they share your opinion?
• Read some more reviews. What adjectives do people use to describe it? Learn three
new adjectives.
Do more with others
Tell a friend about the thing you wrote about.
[email protected]
www.learnercoachingelt.wordpress.com
https://youtu.be/aZBCEJJfSoQ
Lydia Machova